The Benefits of Infographics

“Getting information off the internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant”. Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus Development Corporation

As of February 7, 2014, there are approximately 633 million websites which comprise of 1.81 billion web pages.

In just a few clicks, one can get a massive volume of data off the internet. And, as someone whose job requires research every single day, it’s always a challenge for me to seek out the information I need in the quickest way possible.

Scan reading is one strategy I use to avoid information-overload. However, since I encountered infographics way back in 2010, it became one of my key sources of research material. That same year info graphics really started to become one of the hottest trend on the internet, as illustrated by this Google Trends graph.

Infographics are a visual display of information, data, or knowledge and allow visitors to avoid the need to go through a long series of text. Basically, as its name implies “information in the form of graphics”.

Infographics make use of any combination of the following elements to convey an idea or many ideas in a way that’s appealing to the reader and encourages longer retention:

Image or picture

Shapes

Brief and concise data/ text

Graphs (patterns and trends)

Relationships and Statistics

Maps

Time-series

Using a blend of such elements, complex information can be presented quickly and clearly.

Infographics are growing more popular among the big brands as well as sprouting companies due to its unmatched benefits. Internet users, on the other hand continue to be drawn in by the creativity and charm this adds to any content, not to mention the ease with which Infographics conveys information.

To further understand how it can positively impact your online marketing business, here is the top 6 benefits of infographics.

1. Infographics Boost Interest And Readership

Content is still king.

Savvy internet marketers know exactly how important it is to provide contents that not only answer people’s questions but first of all, capture their interest.

In a book written by Mark Smiciklas entitled “The Power of Infographics” he highlighted an underlying factor which reveals why infographics can be very effective in catching your visitors attention.

“Fifty percent of the human brain is dedicated to visual functions, and images are processed faster than text. The brain processes pictures all at once, but processes text in a linear fashion, meaning it takes much longer to obtain information from text.”

Since infographics are visual representation of information, it engages more people to read your content and so help you achieve your purpose, whether it’s a sale you would offer at the end or just an idea you want to convey.

2. Infographics Promotes Retention

Did you know that according to recent studies, 90 percent of all the information we remember was based on visual information?

Marketing and branding specialist Marta Kagan, described the results of an experiment done to differentiate the level of retention between words and pictures. The result is astounding:

The human brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than it does text and the brain easily remembers what they took in or learned from a visual image.

This is why some of the world’s most renowned speakers like Steve Jobs and Scott Harrison create image-only presentations with very minimal text. Not only it grabs their audiences attention, it also helps them remember and understand better the information being shared.

When it comes to retention, visuals like infographics have dominion over text. In fact, the majority of people around the world are visual learners.

3. Infographics Are Great For SEO

According to Neil Patel, a digital marketing consultant of Quicksprout.com:

“SEO isn’t the same as what it used to be. You can’t just pop up an ugly website, throw up mediocre content, build a few links and expect to rank well. These days you actually have to build a good website, write high quality content that solves peoples’ problems, build thousands of links and get thousands of social shares.”

An SEO expert knows exactly how to create thousands of links within a few months in a cheap, fast and mostly organic way. This is through content marketing.

By providing high calibre contents like infographics, you can spontaneously attract other website owners to link back to your website.

Through sharing made possible by social media, your website can get an instant increase in traffic. This starts when people take notice of your content, read it, and share it with others as you develop “buzz” and the word spreads.

A good example of the viral aspect of infographics is how one of one of our infographics creator user is able to get 100s of shares in just a few hours thanks to infographics.

Another benefit of using infographics on your business is that it builds brand awareness. When you create your own Infographics, featuring your logo, your voice, and your message you will make an impression.

Using a combination of appealing colors, shapes and images, the impression becomes memorable.

5. Increases credibility

When you produce quality content in the form of Infographics, which educates and offers value, you will achieve greater credibility especially within your niche.

6. Simplifies content complexity

Infographics can break down a large amount of information to present your point in a much more efficient way. Your visitors can easily get the relevant information they want with just a peek.

If you can reach out to them, provide the information they need without information-overload, wouldn’t it be great? Most people these day have busy schedules, so if you can give them what they need quickly and easily they will definitely remember you.

Conclusion

Using Infographics is the new trend in content marketing today. This visual representation of content actually matches the learning style of the vast majority of users.

Infographics present information quickly and clearly helping users increase their knowledge about your products or services, without information overload. What they learn visually, they will retain, which is what you want from your business.

Do you use infographics in your business or are you thinking about using them soon? Do you have something to add on this list of the benefits of infographics? Let me know in the comments your thoughts.

7 Comments

I didn’t realize just how powerful infographics could become. Your six points laid it out quite well. It’s definitely making me think about taking a deeper look to see how I might be able to implement such rich content for my audience.

Yeah, you’ll definitely enjoy using Instant Infographics Presence. Just wanted to share with you, I was able to create my own infographics the first time just a few weeks ago. It didn’t take me a couple of hours to finish it and to think that I don’t have any hard background in graphic design, it’s amazing and a real time-saver!